Trip Report: Snowbird Mountains, North Carolina

Friday December 7th, 2007

by "Lancer's Ledger"
Where : Snowbird Mountains, North Carolina
Trails Hiked: Snowbird Mountain Trail ( #415 ), Big Snowbird Trail (#64).
Trail Map: Snowbird Area Trail Map
Guidebook: “North Carolina Hiking Trails” Fourth Edition by Alan de Hart
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult (Mostly due to non-maintenance on the Snowbird Mountain Trail. Many river crossings on Big Snowbird Trail may be dangerous at high water levels).
Scenery: Very good on the Big Snowbird Trail, average on the Snowbird Mountain Trail.
Mileage: 20 mile loop
Accomodations: Micro-Tel and San-Ran hotel in nearby Robbinsville.
Over-all beta: Do the Snowbird Mountain Trail only in the dead of winter unless you just want to punish yourself. Logging scars keep old growth timber limited to the more inaccessible drainages along the Big Snowbird Trail. There are numerous large campsites along the river (a few are overly impacted) but few along the ridges.

Trip Report
Friday December 7th, 2007
The Huddle House in Robbinsville was brand new. We got out of our cars and stood in the freshly asphalted parking lot before entering for our last meal in the front country. I couldn’t help but think that a few years earlier we would be confused with a paramilitary search party fueling up for another foray into the backcountry in hopes of locating Eric Rudolph. The place was clean and as expected, none of the food served matched the photos on the menu. We ate, drank coffee, and contemplated the gray skies and unknown terrain ahead. The weather channel had been predicting clear skies for today and tomorrow with only a slight chance of rain on Sunday. The look on my dog’s face said otherwise. We followed directions to the trailhead from memory and only made one wrong turn. At about 8:30 am we parked and strapped on the packs.
The last mile of the road follows the scenic Big Snowbird Creek. At certain times of the year the quaint campsites on the river bank are packed with fishermen as is the parking area at the trailhead. Today we were the only souls in sight. We started up the Big Snowbird Trail and at .2 miles found a 4”X4” post trail-left with a green blaze painted on it. This marks the left turn onto the Snowbird Mountain trail (SMT). As we expected the “hiking trail” was little more than a wildlife path. The SMT makes a wide sweeping arc first heading back to the East and then around to the West where it gains and follows the main ridge separating the states of North Carolina and Tennessee. Blow-downs and briers seemed to converge on us as we ventured further into the wilderness. Blazes were hard to find and if not for the boundary trees, wilderness markers, and infrequent signs of trail maintainers in the winter forest we would have found ourselves lost and turned back. But onward we hiked through the leafless woods barely able to make 1 mile per hour.
History and legend have it that the Cherokee leader Tsali fled first into the Great Smokey Mountains and then down into the Snowbird Mountains to escape persecution from acts that took place during the removal of all Cherokee from their homeland. (See http://www.telliquah.com/Tsali2.htm for a brief description of the events.) Our party quickly understood the appropriateness of the area for hiding out. As the sun began to near the western horizon our group of eight had been split into three groups. Three of us were out in front, three were somewhere behind, and two were either somewhere further behind or off course completely. We hadn’t tried to set some blistering pace but the trail was hard to follow, the terrain was difficult, and the weather was turning cold forcing us to limit our stopping time and to keep moving. No switch backs, only up and down. The sun was shrinking behind cloudy skies so we had to make camp. The next gap we hoped would provide the first adequate campsite of the day.
Not sure exactly where we were we hoped the next gap was better than any we had encountered previously. They all had lacked a good campsite. Maybe just over the next rise we thought. With just a hint of daylight we dropped over the next rise and the trail opened up. Ahead was…a cabin? Yes, a cabin in the woods, a bear hunter’s cabin. On the border accessible by jeep from the Tennessee side with a big wrap around porch. Setting down our packs we regaled in our good fortune and hiked down the forest service road in search of water. Other hunter’s shanties were seen but no hunters. We returned to the cabin and hoped that the other hikers would endure and reach the oasis. They didn’t. A bear paw was nailed to a tree just off the porch and we mused about a three legged bear marauding our campsite as we slept. But we weren’t afraid. Nothing could overcome the elation of finding a big porch to sleep and cook under as the rain began to fall.

Saturday December 8, 2007
Rain, along with the temperature, dropped during the night. No bears and no hikers rendezvoused with us in the dark. After packing up, eating breakfast, and waiting we decided to continue up the trail. We soon realized that we weren’t as far up the trail as we had thought. The sky was gray and the sun was hidden. Fog encompassed everything around us and staying on the trail became even more difficult. The three of us got separated several times but managed to regroup and find the junction of the Big Snowbird Trail on Saturday afternoon. We had walked 9.4 miles in 2 days, been lost several times, backtracked uncounted miles, but now gazed upon a well worn established trail. I think jubilant would describe our mood.
Until now the trail had been an up and down non-switchback affair that stuck to the ridge dividing the states. One might think “no big deal” but the various sub ridges veering off to the left and right, lack of recent maintenance, dense fog, and the absence of a trail rut and blazes had made this an epic adventure in route finding and hunch pursuance. The trail ahead of us now was true and clearly following the headwaters of Big Snowbird Creek downstream. We forded the waters several times and still managed to do the 6 miles to the high water trail to Middle Falls (#64-A) in less than 3 hours. Darkness was upon us so we took the side trail to Middle falls and camped close by. We gathered water by headlamp but as we went to sleep the skies opened up and revealed starlight for the first time on our adventure. By 1 am the rain was back. I gathered the dog under the tarp and we slept to the rhythm of falling water….both from the sky and the nearby falls.

Sunday December 9th, 2007
Morning broke with more rain but we were only 1 mile away from rejoining the main trail and walking 4 miles back to the car. Hopefully the other hikers in our group would be encountered along the way. The trail along the river had been fantastic. Big trees, rushing waters, and large boulders lined the path. Several drainages emptied into the Snowbird each increasing it’s rush and roar. What a change from the briers and blow-downs on the Snowbird Mountain Trail. At the junction with the main trail we met up with our group. Their epic included losing the trail somewhere just before Pantherflat Top and bush-whacking down Littleflat Branch to the Snowbird Creek Trail. How they managed to do it I’ll never understand. The splintered groups behind us had rejoined late Friday afternoon and formed one company of hikers. They camped then got lost but still persevered. Rhododendron thickets and loose mud could not detour them and somehow they regained the main trail and met up with us Sunday morning. All eight together once more we headed for the car and dry clothes.
As is the norm, the closer we got to the trailhead, the more the skies cleared. We were laughing now, happy that we had made it through and secretly knowing we would not soon return.

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